Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 92
92 Christianity – A Journey from Facts to Fiction seen alive in his body soon after the Crucifixion. If St Paul understood Jesus as to have been resurrected, he could be right, of course, and his personal ‘vision’ of Jesus as or communion with him could be explained in terms of resurrection like the visiting soul of a dead person from the other world, acquiring an apparition very much like its form and shape prior to death. But there seems to be confusion over the mixing up of two types of evidence. Firstly we need to consider the early evidence of his disciples and of those who loved and revered him, although they might not have been formally initiated into Christianity. That evidence must have been misunderstood by St Paul because it clearly speaks of Jesus as in his human form with a corporeal body that cannot be interpreted as resurrection. To prove this, one has only to refer to the episode of Jesus as surprising some of his disciples: But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. " And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. (Luke 24:37–43) This episode categorically rules out the idea of resurrection, and speaks of Jesus as wanting to demonstrate clearly that he was the same person in the same human body and not a ghost; nor was he someone no longer dependant on food for survival. This further